Thursday, July 06, 2006

Powerpointless!!

There comes a time in our career when we are fed with doses and doses of presentations, mostly power point. It happens mostly when one is a new hire of an organization and is forced to endure it. I unfortunately have been at the receiving end of this torture once too often.

But like the light after the long dark tunnel, like the rainbow after the rain, like the rain on the desert sand, like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and many such clichés, my time came too, to pay back to some people in kind.

For all the times, my eyes squinted trying to keep myself awake during such presentations,
For all the times, I acted interested and scribbled lines and lines of nonsense even though hand outs would be given by the end of the session.
For all the times, I took long breaths to avoid yawning openly,
For all the times, I asked boring questions just to establish the fundamental connectedness with my peers,

I decided I would not be Gandhi and sit through another presentation when I am slapped with one. Instead I would give back with another presentation, with power, presence and punch.

I sat and prepared another presentation with some other tool. I was the presenter and I did not stop there. I recorded and inserted my own voice as the narrator. Period.

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

That was interesting. What other tools you used? and how was the response? Any tips for poor presenters like me :-)

Anonymous said...

You made a movie?
Butliked very much your point about powerpoint.
gawd, the (wo)manhours spent zapped out...
austere

manuscrypts said...

Point taken!! but what exactly did you do?

Arunima said...

@manuscrypts: I bugged people.

@austere: It was not a movie. It was a presentaion with one of the tools where you can add voice.

@Praveen a: You don't know what you are asking. All I did was take revenge. :-)

I cannot disclose the tool as it is owned by the company.

Prerona said...

yes she does - at procheta.blogspot.com :)

Anshuman said...

oh boy .. a presentation !

I remember the one's i gave in college - somehow used to make people listen to me in rapt attention, if not speak up. It was a sense of satisfaction in itself, cause i often saw my peers doze off while someone else is presenting !

I dont get to do those anymore ... yes, i do have truckloads of meetings, demos and stuff - but no more PPTs yet .. oh boy there was a time, when me and my pardner had mastered the art of it - we would prepare a powerpoint PPT in 30 mins, and rehearse it on the run - what fun !


btw finally ... i have http://.anshuman.info up and running :)

Arunima said...

@Anshuman: I'll be there. thankls for the link.

I don't get the chance to give presentations quite often.

I don't use the PPT anymore, but it is quite a handy tool.

Anonymous said...

PPTs!! Hmmmm!!!!
Like Iris Murdoch said, its like a nuclear war. At the end of it, there are no winners or losers. Only survivors. :)

And to think that I've managed to survive this long.......

d4u said...

"power, presence and punch"...u sounded so similar to the punch line of the movie releasing tomorrow "power, paisa and politics"....looks the corporate world is in big 'p' circle:p

Arunima said...

@kishore: thanks!! It was an amazing comment.

@Da4u: Not planning to watch it though.

Ar Ar Ar Arrrrr said...

Once u climb up the ladder in ur organisation...or u spend lotsa time in one company...believe me, afta few months they hand ova OFFICE work to you...all the time...
Thts wht I'm doing right now...working in sExcel and dWord...grrrrrrrrrrr...

I'll take tips on how to make presentaion on monday....coz I hafta work on it too....


You inserted voice in the presentation....now thts an inspiration....I'm a bathroom singer....no one gives me company ova there....but Im surely gonna record ma voice and give a funky presentation....you just wait n watch...hehehehe

*wicked me*

AmitL said...

LOL...Didn't u use yet another two technique to remain awake at presentations- pinching yourself and going 'ouch'under your breath and/or drinking glasses of water to let the mind focus on something.:)And,I agree- no pleasure's greater than letting others get bored when you make a presentation yourself.'paying back in kind', as you say.

± said...

its a pain... i hate PPTs.
we have clients, client servicing and account planners, all brandishing laptops of various dimensions and volumes (no pun intended) making life miserable day in and day out...
Arunima, my dear, i am sure there are better ways to extract revenge besides the intellectual anesthesia?

otherwise one day you will end up making a PPT to someone like me, who in the pretension of concentration and intelligence will keep asking you to repeat the contents of the previous slide...

ah.. with a polite please though... ;-)

Anonymous said...

i like presentations.. be it powerpoint or anything else... you are the center of attention when that happens.. who doesnt want that?

Anonymous said...

first time on ur blog....read many of ur posts....u got a gr8 sense of homour lady

Anonymous said...

maybe Bill Gates is feeling guilty of unleashing something like ppt on humanity....in the end world got richer by 30 billion dollar of his donations

last heard major cofee players will be giving a % of their revenue to Microsoft.....endless cups of coffee during nights spend on fixing some presentation

Raghav said...

sleeping during a PPT presentation ? WELL DONE pal. Uve mastered the most sought after technique of all times...That's what I love to do too :-)

Anonymous said...

i can so relate to this!!!

corporatization of the world!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

In my prev. co. we had graduated from humble ppt presentations to flash/audio/video ones, complete background songs :P At least it kept people awake, even if most points got missed ha ha

unforgiven said...

Join AMD :D
We had one ten minute presentation and that was the long and short of it. Not seen powerpoint since then!

Anonymous said...

Finally one learns to give the respect what these presentations deserve. :-)

Vinesh said...

Can totally relate to you...
HAte presentations tthat I'm forced to attend..

Anonymous said...

Well, my morning glow, that's what I call reality. By the way, if I have to do slides here, where will the caucasian babes find jobs !! May be as maids in kitchens of B'lore... I will wait for that day. About powerpoint presentations, even Mungeri goes into his 'Suneli Sapne' mode. However I am good at keeping my eyes open. Talking about kitchen, I have a thought. Is there a book on Manipuri cuisine ? Preferably in hinglish.

Mungeri Lal

Pallavi said...

hahahah !!! I faal asleep all the time.. I now keep thinking of all things more interesting.. LOLOL rather than thinking about the ppt.. unless I am the one who has to ask questions.. or I doodle.. buhahahah !!